According to the common sentiment, these are places where toubabs live
and everyone is rich. (In The Gambia, "America" refers specifically to
the United States.) Some Gambians will know otherwise, but the
majority will swear by this truth no matter how much you try to
convince them that capitalism's gaps in wealth wreak havoc on many
lower class Americans. You should give some credit to their
assumptions—many Gambians make less than a dollar a day, the
low-standard education is not free, and the average Gambian would have
to save for months to pay for the time you spend at the internet café
over two weeks.
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Alas, although you are a university student and your parents
probably bought your last pair of sneakers, you do validate the
claim that Americans are rich—your university education is
securely funded, you have paid for a plane ticket to Africa, and
you can afford to buy a soft drink everyday.
Youth unemployment and underemployment rates are very high
though figures are not easy to come by. This high level of
economically inactive young people accounts for some of the
reasons why so many young people wish to emigrate to the US or
Europe.
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